Bonds of Ice and Blood
by MaMa HedgeHog
Summary: “Come with me,Ichigo” Rukia smiled sadly “How long can we torture or souls by staying apart?”Everything around them was silent for the longest moment in Rukia’s very long life. Then he lowered his gun.“It won’t work” he told her.She laughed“We’ll make it"


_A/N: Written for my first BA entry for the Halloween challenge at the IchiRuki FC. Okay, it sucks extremely bad, there are parts that are abrupt and unexplained and they're bugging me too, I would work on it more, but I'm having some serious time-restrains with my promos coming up...I can only sympathize with the people who read this piece. I'm using the AU:Vampire Hunt prompt.  
_

The ice had lined along his eye-lids. They shed like tears when he opened his eyes. He was colder than he'd ever been.

Slowly Ichigo became aware of the jagged, slippery ice beneath his form, digging into the planes of his stomach. His body was starting to fend of the numbness and pains were shooting from different parts of his body. He made to move his hand groaning at the trouble it caused him. Cautiously, he exerted the slightest of pressure on his hands and lifted himself.

Ichigo's once immaculate blazer was dusted with white snow and his pants torn at the knee. One of his loafers were missing, the foot covered in grey sock. The tips of his fingers, nose and ears burned in the force of the cold. He legs were frozen and he couldn't move them yet, the cold rendering them numb. His brown irises were rimmed with a raw red because of exhaustion. But even with all obvious signs of something wrong, the one thing that concerned him most was the conspicuous absence of the special weapon at his holster.

He tried to make sense of his surroundings, some sort of Narnian Snow Queen esqe lair.

How did he get here?

He'd been following the trail of a tall, inhumanely beautiful and _suspicious _woman-surely a vampire, of that he was sure- through a blizzard. In Ichigo's defense, he had assumed that it'd be difficult for anyone, even a vampire, to detect his presence in the middle of a snow storm. Obviously, to his chagrin, he'd been wrong. In his haste to complete his mission and get back to his family, he'd just landed himself in a shit load of trouble.

Ichigo gradually stood up, supporting himself against the closest ice sculpture. Apparently trying to get on his feet, on ice was a bitch. As he struggled to keep his balance, his eyes caught sight of a familiar weapon, some distance away from him. The shock of it stopped Ichigo momentarily. Assuming that he _had _been captured by a vampire, there was no way his weapon would be anywhere in the vicinity of his hands.

He, cautiously and shakily, made his way towards his abandoned weapon and picked it up, closely examining it. The gun had been emptied of the lethal bullets that had previously been there. He's brain must've been seriously off track when he was hoping that they were still there.

Then he heard it; the sounds of someone approaching. His hand tightened around the gun, out of reflex. He took cover behind the sculpture he was using to support himself. The temperature of his surroundings were dropping steadily, the footsteps, with deliberation, were getting heavier. Ichigo almost held his breath, mentally cursing his situation. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so out of options, in the duration of his career as a hunter.

Ichigo watched as the lady he'd been following glided in, her expression almost cruel, her gaze fixated on him. Her eyes dropped to the hand clutching the gun and her expression turned almost mocking. She stroked the length of her odd ice-blue hair and addressed him.

"How is your head?"

Ichigo glared at her.

"You did hit it quite hard when you fell of the edge at the opening."

He stubbornly refused to reply instead opting to be hyperaware of every moment she made.

"Tut Tut, such rudeness even after I let you live." She mocked him.

He narrowed his eyes at her, asking the question that had been disturbing him all along.

"Why did you not kill me?" almost as if a proverbial bulb light went off in his head "There's no reason for you to keep me alive, unless---" he stopped.

"Unless there is something you need from a hunter." he finished almost triumphantly.

Her countenance changed from mocking to cold instantly, almost as if needing something from him physically affected her negatively. Her ice-blue eyes, the same color of her hair, glared at him as if he was something to be squished beneath her feet.

But Ichigo could sense he had some leverage now.

"Well whatever it is that you want," He shot at her "you won't be getting from me."

She smirked coldly "Are you sure?" she asked "do you think that you chanced upon me by mistake, earlier?"

She walked closer towards him.

"No I've been watching you, biding my time," she laughed "I know where your family is, I know where your friends are and I know who you are, Kurosaki Ichigo."

As a rule Ichigo didn't attack girls, the only exceptions being when he was actually fighting a female opponent but, in his mind, this woman wasn't female. She was a monster.

He lunged at her, gun-less and all, and the next he knew he was crashing to the ground painfully, sliding across the ice.

"I do need something from a hunter," she looked down on him, her chin and stance both regal "but not just any hunter, I need something from you, or rather, I need _you, _Kuorsaki Ichigo."

He stared at her and she stared right back at him quite expressionlessly.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked her after a period of heavy silence. He needed to stall and make her believe he was listening to her till he figured out a way to destroy her "Do you have a name?"

"A name?" she slowly turned away from him, walking back to the opening she had entered from and there was almost a smile in her voice when she replied "I'm known as Sode No Shirayuki but it has been a very long time since I've been addressed so."

Sode No Shirayuki motioned to him "Come follow me," she smiled, a genial smile that scared him stiff, "There is someone who should see you."

He found himself following her quite compliantly, or rather, limping after her in silence while she led him to, what appeared to be, another large empty space through a corridor of more ice walls. However, this one was quite devoid of anything but a large, rectangular sector of ice at the centre. Ichgio squinted, there seemed to be something inside the ice block that he couldn't make out.

Sode No Shirayuki, lovingly, slid her fingers over the block, her face surprisingly soft.

"Isn't she beautiful?" she asked him, her voice echoing.

_She? _Who the hell was the blood sucker talking about?

"What the he-?" He stopped abruptly.

His eyes had just made out exactly what was inside the block of ice. Ichigo drew back, horrified. He'd seen a lot of strange things in his life as a hunter but this one surpassed all other by a long mile.

There, suspended in ice, was the small figure of a human being curled in, what he assumed to be, a fetal position. No. not a human being; There was absolutely _no way _ the creature inside was a human being. He took a step back.

"What the hell is it?" He voice was higher than he liked.

Shirayuki didn't take her gaze off the figure in ice. It was almost as if she were in a trance.

"She's been asleep for decades now," her voice had gone more wistful, "refusing to wake up for anything or anyone."

"What's it to me?" he asked harshly, "There's nothing I can do about it."

She went on as if she didn't hear him "Her soul is alone, incomplete."

Ichigo took another step back, sensing the Shirayuki was talking more to herself than him. He hastily looked around, looking for _something _that could be used as a weapon.

"But not anymore" with that Shirayuki unsheathed a startlingly white blade and pierced it through the ice. The ice block shattered and out of pure reflex, even though he had a bad leg, Ichigo lunged catching the tiny falling figure in his arms and crashed into the ground cradling the creature.

Shirayuki's eyes chilled further and she turned away. "She's been waiting for you to be born again."

Ichigo, unwillingly cuddled the naked, freezing girl's body closer to himself. "What are you talking about?" he looked down at the small, black head, "What is this?"

"We vampires can sense it," she replied, "we can _see _it, when the one who completes our soul or our maker's soul, is born."

With uncharacteristic gentleness Ichigo laid down the girl on the ice, "I don't understand" he told Shirayuki "How does any of this have anything to do with me?"

"I can see the ribbons of life" she replied, still refusing to look at him "I've searched for years and years for the one that connects to her soul till I finally found it a few weeks ago."

She walked to the figure beside him and gently turned her giving Ichigo the first look at the girl-no-woman's face. He expected to see a young girl given the size of her body, instead the face under his eyes was elegant and womanly, framed by black hair. Her eyes were wide open, glassy and a dull purple color. She looked like one of the ice sculptures in the other room.

"Do you not understand?" Shirayuki asked him, looking him directly in the eye "You were born for her, solely for _her_."

"Fuck this" Ichigo snarled in reply "I don't give a shit about ribbons and souls, what do I have to do to keep my family safe?"

"Give her your blood."

"You've gotta be kidding me" he shot back at her, "there's no way in hell I'm giving a blood sucker my blood."

She cradled the dark head against her chest "Do you not remember what could happen if you refuse me?"

Ichigo scowled mightily, "Why the hell can't you give her your blood?" he asked her, "Isn't your blood some kind of powerful?"

"Yours is the blood she needs."

And that was that. Ichigo found himself looking down at those glassy eyes, holding the small woman's body in his arms. She'd been covered by a heavy sheet that Shirayuki had provided making her looking even tinier. The taller woman took hold of his wrist and pierced it with her fang. Ichigo hissed and scowled but didn't say anything. Shirayuki lifted his wrist to the woman's mouth, depositing it between cold lips and then left it there, choosing to draw back and move away to the other side of the room.

The room was eerily silent, while he sat there not feeling anything. Minutes passed but the woman seemed to be completely unresponsive.

Just as Ichigo was about to draw his hand back, still scowling at Shiryuki's motionless eyes, he felt it.

The whole world spun and he felt the pull of blood in his head and he felt the slide of it down her throat.

_Fulfilling, _

_Enriching_

Her hands came up to grab his and her body almost lifted off his arms. His head fell back, mouth open in a silent scream. The feelings and lights exploded behind his very eye-lids. He was no longer sure who he was. He felt her despair; her hunger; her relief and her love. And they became his despair, hunger, relief and love. He distantly felt her burrowing further into his body, felt the light hit her eyes when she finally _finally_ could see him. She was trembling or maybe it was he. He saw her face thorough the clouded haze and his own glazy eyes through her eyes. His emotions, her emotions, they rose and merged until they became one and the room around them disappeared. She let go of his hand, lifted herself and sunk her teeth into his neck, and just as she felt her own teeth pierce through his artery, he felt the gush of his blood filling her mouth. He grabbed her arms and the feeling of overwhelming familiarity responded inside him. Her fingers grabbed at the hair on the nape of his neck and she pulled herself closer to him as if she couldn't get close enough. He met her half way, molding her with his body without even willing to do so. He didn't remember her face; he didn't remember her touch but what he did remember was feeling like this.

_He did; he really did._

Voices; Noises filled his head. He heard the sound of his blood travelling through her veins. And he heard her voice. It resonated soulful, beautiful and elegant. Jumble of sentences in his mind and colorful bursts of memories; her memories. She told him of her guilt of years and story of her waiting. He didn't understand any of it but he would do anything to keep listening. His eyes saw the wars she fought protecting her land and her race and he felt her see his wars of this life time.

The height of their combined feelings culminated and all the colors started fading to black behind his eyes. He could give her no more of his blood right now and the feeling of that inadequacy struck so painfully that Ichigo though he would keel over with it. He wanted to keep giving her.

_No more…no more.._

_Thank you Ichigo…_

And she pulled herself back and looked at him. The feeling of emptiness was jarring. She tilted her head, a stubborn bang in centre of her face sliding across her face, and everything in his world went black.

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When Ichigo woke again, his wrist was throbbing and the wound at the side of his neck burned slightly. To his surprise, he'd been moved from the uncomfortable spot against the wall to a much softer…bed? He sat up fast and immediately regretted it when a wave of dizziness hit him. On the bed-side table there was glass of juice and a note with it.

_Drink it, it'll help you gain strength_, it said.

He scoffed at the note but drank it anyway, opting to regain his strength and swung his legs off the bed.

He could tell that they were no longer in the freezing ice-cave. It looked to be a manor, wooden floors and walls with fire places. They must've moved from the lair while he'd been unconscious and it concerned him that he'd been out through out the whole process.

It was time to find a way out of here.

Ichigo opened the door carefully taking care not to make any noise, a stupid move in hindsight with Sode No Shiyuki's vampiric ears. So it surprised him that nobody came, baring fans at him. Instead he found himself on one end of the long corridor where the only light came through the open door of the room he'd just been in.

His hunters' instinct told him it would be a mistake to leave here without taking out the vampires in this house but, at the moment, his paralyzing bullets were still lying somewhere, probably crushed to bits. And hunter or not, he was still human, physically incapable of taking on a, he deduced, powerful creature. Not to mention, he'd jus given his blood to yet _another_ creature who exhibited, Ichigo now realized, far more power than Shirayuki did.

He pushed all the ridiculous emotional turmoil at the thought of the previously frozen creature that had drunk from him, and honed his eye-sight to the dark. He found a stair case by groping about in the dark, moving his hands and feet carefully. In a slight distance from the top of the staircase there was a flickering light and it creaked under his feet as he made his way to the towards it, inexplicably drawn. And even before he got there he knew who he'd see.

"You're free to leave." _she_ was there, standing at the fireplace, finally clad in warm clothes. "Your work is done."

He scowled "Like I needed your permission."

She smiled which raised Ichigo's hackles. It was smug and infuriating. "Ohh, is that why you were sneaking about around the house?"

"Shut up shorty" he shot back, "that other blood sucker's the one who gagged me and force fed me to you!"

She looked at him strangely and then walked towards him.

"Why did you become a hunter?"

Ichigo, reflexively took a step back not expecting that question. He turned his face away from her stare.

"It's none of your business"

It still yanked at his gut to think of his reasons of becoming a hunter, his mother's death fighting a vampire. He wished, more than anything, when becoming a hunter that he'd meet the creature responsible for her death. He would someday, for sure.

As if sensing that she's asked something painful, the woman stepped back and turned away from him.

Ichigo shrugged off the old bitterness and made to leave that house.

"Kuchiki Rukia" she called out to him "My name is Kuchiki Rukia."

Ichigo turned to her and couldn't help from being flooded with a wave of nostalgia.

"Ichigo Kurosaki"

Kuchiki Rukia smiled at him, "We'll meet again, you know." She told him, looking painfully beautiful wearing that smile "It may be years from now, decades or even lifetimes, but we will meet again."

Ichigo shrugged but the surety and the weight of her words settled warmly somewhere inside him and looking at the vampire, Rukia's tiny form, he once again remembered all her feelings for him from when he'd given her blood.

"We might be on opposite sides of two worlds" he told her "today, the line is blurred but tomorrow…it won't be."

She came closer to him, in the vicinity of his arms and his fingers clenched out of their own volition to reach and touch her face. Rukia however, didn't resist her impulse. She stroked his cheek with the back of her cold hand.

"The lines are always blurred when it comes to us, Ichigo."

She rose on her tiptoes and he bend his neck, without even realizing, till his lips were on top of hers and his soul had taken a dive into hers. Rukia's other hand came up to stroke the wound on the side of his neck and Ichigo didn't even remember his name anymore. He could see the shape of her soul now, and he embedded her image inside the darkest depth of his mind.

Their lips still touched, still in the beauty of their connection. And when he finally slanted them over hers, digging his hand into the wispy strands of black hair, pulling her closer she didn't feel like the enemy he was to fight with. He didn't want to leave anymore, All he wanted was to live here, in this place, with a vampire named Rukia who knew his soul inside-

She wrenched away from, her face agonized for a split second before it went back to its cool mask but it wasn't fast enough to doubly spark the pain in his soul from being parted from her.

"Go"

Without one more word or one more glance back, Ichigo left bringing an end to single most wonderful encounter of his life.

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It was years before they met again, on opposites sides of a proverbial battlefield. It was Ichigo's mission to kill her, an ancient, revived vampire. Hunter and vampire.

He stood before her with a gun that would bring sure death to her soul. And Rukia looked at him thinking that even with lines of experience on his face, he still reminded her of the hunter who's woken her up with his blood from her years of slumber in a block of ice. She remembered the shock of seeing his bright orange hair. His hair had dulled in color a but it was still bright enough to stand out. Her soul, in seeing him in the flesh, felt completion it had been yearning for since that fateful night.

"Idiot," she called out to him, "Do you think you can kill me?"

He didn't answer her, instead raising his gun to her.

"Come with me, Ichigo" Rukia smiled sadly "How long can we torture or souls by staying apart?"

Everything around them was silent for the longest moment in Rukia's very long life. Then he lowered his gun.

"It won't work" he told her.

She laughed "We'll make it work."

He shook his head and smiled tenderly "And here I thought your long years should've turned you into a cynic."

"Of course it has" she scolded him, mockingly "But there are some things you have to try for, no matter how difficult."

The gun fell from his hand and he took the first step towards her. She met him halfway...


End file.
